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You can contact the author (Teguh Hidayat) by email, teguh.idx@gmail.com. The author live in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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The Importance of an Investor’s Vision

In 2005, I
was still a student of the third year at the campus of the Department of
Statistics, Padjadjaran University (Unpad) Bandung. Then a friend of the same generation on campus,
named Ivan, invited me to join the student association, Himpunan Mahasiswa Statistika (Himasta) Unpad.
Previously they chose Ivan as the vice head of the Himasta, and he was building
his team by recruiting other students, including me, to join the Himasta. Then,
I was wondering, ‘What will I do in Himasta? I dislike joining an organization.’

Then Ivan replied, ‘Don’t you like trading, Guh? I have an idea, How if
we make a new department for Himasta, called the Department of Entrepreneurship. Its jobs are trading, doing
business or anything related to the business field, but for Himasta. The
department has not ever existed before and I think that it is worth to make
one, who knows if it may spread the passion of entrepreneurship among statistic
students’. Then most students had already known me as a small-scale
entrepreneur. I was the only student who still had the time to sell this and
that, when other students spent their time analyzing numbers, making
researches, and drawing charts.

And even though I might want to join campus
organizations (people said if the organizational skills would be useful in the
work field), but I assumed if organization was a time waster, in which its only job
was meeting in the secretariat without doing any real action in the field, while I like doing
outdoor action. However, because Ivan was one of my best friends and we often
played Play Station in a rental together, then I agreed with his invitation to
join Himasta as the head of Entrepreneurship Department. Then I recruited some
younger students to become members of the new Department.

Unfortunately because I engaged with my business,
then for the next few months, the Department of Entrepreneurship had no action
at all. Then, I had a meeting with my members to discuss the matter, and the
discussion was: ‘Our management at the Himasta will end in a few
months (the younger students will replace us), but this Department has not ever
made any action. But frankly, I also have no idea what to do, because there
were nothing to learn from the previous generation, and indeed because before
our times, the Department of Entrepreneurship did not exist.’

‘However, I want this department continues its management to the next organization, to
spread the passion of entrepreneurship itself. Because as far as I know, ‘being
an entrepreneur’ is not a popular trend in the statistics campus, only few
students want to trade. Even the successful graduates work as professional or
bureaucrats, instead of being entrepreneur.’

Then I continued the discussion, ‘I have a vision that this department will be a place where the students of statistics
Unpad can study business, and from this department, we will have a lot
entrepreneur, who will come to alumni reunions or college seminars with titles
as entrepreneurs, to share the motivation for their friends to become a trader
or a businessman. As Indonesia has too many job seekers, it has few employers.’

Then the
discussion settled one thing to do: the entrepreneurship department was going
to buy a glass counter shelf, like the one used by someone who sells phone
services. It would be placed in the lobby of statistics campus and used by
Himasta to sell universities accessories, at least to the students of the
faculty. Sadly, until the end of management, I and my team could not collect
Rp600,000 to buy the counter. But before the younger student replaced me, I
asked one member of the department to take the head position (I forgot his
name) and to actualize the counter purchase. Fortunately, I felt the younger student
I chose got excited when I was discussing how the counter could be the legacy the
younger generations would remember the management of Himasta bought the counter
in 2006.

Soon
after that, they finally brought the counter to the campus and become the place
for the organization members to sell accessories, stickers, mugs, etc.

Time passed. Several years
later, the Department of Entrepreneurship
invited me to give seminar and share motivation to the students at the
statistics faculty of Unpad Jatinangor. And of course, I accepted the offer
gladly, and I did not even tell them about the stock market at all but I shared
my story as a small entrepreneur when I was studying. And in April this year,
Ikatan Alumni Stat Unpad held a grand reunion in Bumi Sangkuriang, Bandung,
where I attended the event. Then, I saw a glass counter with a board named 'the
Entrepreneur Department of Himasta', which sold any campus accessories.

A mug with
the logo of Himasta. Its price is only Rp20.000 (about US$ 1.5). I felt a bit dissapointed, because if
the price had been Rp50.000 (US$ 3.5), they would have gained more profit. After all, the
buyers are their seniors.

Thus, my vision the department of
entrepreneur becoming the place for
statistics students to study business, finally it becomes true. And I don’t know if there is a correlation or not,
although my generation (I am the student of 2003), there are only two or three
alumni who became entrepreneur (most of them work as government employees), but
in the younger generations, the entrepreneurs increase. While I was giving a
seminar in my value some time ago, I met a student of 2005 Unpad who became a
successful owner of baby and toddler’s needs shops. Then he wanted to invest
some of his earning to invest in the instrument of stock.

Okay, what is the
main point of this discussion?

As the title
above, we do not discuss the entrepreneurship, but the importance of a vision. The story above is an example how a vision made several years ago, eventually
becomes true. When I have not put most of my time in stock market in 2009,
I had been told that it was important to have a long-term vision, to give us any description what we will do for the next year's from now, and what
contribution that we have to give to the people.

And its
correlation with the stock investment is if you have a vision in the meaning of
having an ability to see far ahead in
the future, then you get two advantages. First, you may see what you become
in the future, and it is important. By having a view or goal about ‘what I will
become’ in yourself for the next 10 years, then the activities that you do will lead you to reach the goal (and
this is what is called mission). And
if you want to become a successful investor, then you have to know what you need
to do. You need to start investing from now, keep practicing, keep learning,
and have a time write and take a note of important matters that you practice
when you invest (to be read and studied by you later, do you think why does
Grandpa Warren writes annual letters every year?). And focus studying the
investment techniques and methods you decide to have, whether it is value
investing or another. Read more about following article: Investor’s Intrinsic Value.

But if you don
not have any vision mentioned above, it means that you don’t have any purpose
or goal. And if you don’t have any goal, then you don’t know what you have to do. Now imagine if you are a
football player, but you do not know how to score a goal: Then where you are
going to kick the ball?

Note: The next section of the
article (the Importance of Investor’s Vision, Part 2), you can read it here.

Original article was written (in Indonesian Language)
in June 5, 2016. For inquiries,
please contact the author by email, teguh.idx@gmail.com.